Monday, February 27, 2017

Now, we've seen many different periods and eras in epic television and movie projects, but I don't think we've seen much of Byzantium or Eastern Roman Empire in them, so this one is certainly unique. Russian television has started airing SOPHIA epic TV series earlier this winter in eight one hour episodes following the life of famous princess Sophia of the Byzantine royal line of Palaiologos who became the Grand Duchess of Moscow and later on the grandmother of legendary Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar of All Russia. Below you can check out the magnificent video for the epic song 'Я тебе верю' (I Believe You) from the opening sequence performed by singer Grigory Leps of the lavish series which had more than one thousand costumes for the cast!

THE STORY OF SOFIA The second half of the 15th century. Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III
(Yevgeny Tsyganov) takes an offer by ambassadors from Rome to marry
princess Zoe (Mariya Andreyeva) of an ancient Byzantine Palaiologos
family. He sends voivode Khromoy and a monetary master Ivan Fryazin to
Rome, who bring Zoe to Moscow, where she takes a new name after
rebaptism – SOPHIA. She did not meet the expectations of the Pope to
expand an influence of the Catholic Church in Russia. The attempts to
send emissaries with the aim of urging Sophia to follow the line of Rome
and further killing her end in failure. The most notable moments of
Ivan III's rule are shown, including: the war with Novgorod Republic,
disagreement and further peace with Ivan's brothers (Boris and Andrey
Bolshoy), victory over Golden Horde, and also opposition of Sophia with a
wife of Ivan's elder son Elena.

DEZZY'S HISTORY LESSON

The niece of a Byzantine emperor, the wife of a Russian Grand Duke, the grand mother of a Russian Tzar, SOPHIA Palaio- logina was a daughter of Despot of Morea, the younger brother of the last Byzan- tine Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. Her mother was Catherine, the princess of Achaea. Both of their daughters were married of to powerful European rulers, Zoe or Sophia to the Russian duke, and her sister Helena to Despot Lazar of Serbia. Since Morea was invaded by the Ottomans, she spent her childhood in Italy and Corfu and after the death of her father she, as an Imperial Byzantine daughter, actually lived at the court of Pope Sixtus IV in Rome. After negotiations which lasted three years he gave her to prince Ivan of Moscow probably in hopes to strengthen Catholic influence in Orthodox Russia. Her travel from Rome to Moscow with a grand entourage lasted from June till November 1479! But Pope's aims failed since she went back to Orthodox religion as soon as she became Grand Duchess! Prince Ivan III built a special palace and gardens for her and she was not confined to the women's quarters like other noble women of the time, but greeted foreign representatives from Europe similarly as the queens of Western Europe.

Good God, look at those fabrics! So much detail, colour and texture. Fabulous!

I'm sorry to hear the weather is so cold there. Up until yesterday, February has been very warm and I've been outside all day. My tulips are already budding, the tulips are up as are the tiger lillies. Of course

I am so out of touch with you. How is work going? Is your publisher giving you new books to translate?

that is Eastern Europe wear for you :) Our Emperors and Kings wore the same costumes too.

It ain't cold any more, but it was the coldest winter from December and January when it did not rise above minus 10 for two months, it never lasted that long. The snow fell just once but stood untouched for more than a month due to the extreme cold.

She is, and I had a new one this winter too, but we no longer have a friendly and warm relationship we had before :(

and then she got angry like a dog that she became, you know Hitlery's mad dog, and said he defamed her. Funny how them extreme liberals love to attack but cannot stand an attack on themselves. I'm fully sure she demanded money from him and she wore Elie Saab at the Oscars, because he probably did pay her or gave her the dress forever. She became such a clown in just a few quick months

is there a way to ever get this on DVD/Blu Ray with English subtitles? Or that Viking movie that was released around Christmas? These Russian movies and shows look great but seem impossible to watch anywhere....

some of Russian series and movies can be found on Torrents, but sadly they usually don't have English subs anywhere to be found around the Net :( I've recently found their CATHERINE THE GREAT series from two years ago on Torrents but there are no matching subs to be found anywhere, sadly. Some of the movies do get international release in some of the countries around the world, especially in Europe.

Watched start to finish in one fell swoop. Absolutely incredible. I am going to try Ekaterina if it has subtitles🤞. I am only vaguely familiar with Russian history, so I don't know how romanticized or how much license was taken with the storyline, but I would highly recommend it. Beautiful from the opening credits to the closing credits. Even the closing theme song was still enjoyable after hearing eight times in 8 hours😊